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Transcanada has third catastrophic pipeline leak in 9 months.

September 16, 2014 - 4:33pm

Otterburne, MB January 25th 2014

Early this morning (Sept 16) a natural gas pipeline owned by TransCanada ruptured in Benton Harbor, Michigan causing the evacuation of over 500 people. This is the third catastrophic failure for TransCanada since January of this year.

The Berrien County Sheriff's Office issued this release around 6 a.m.:

"At approximately 2am on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 a natural gas line affiliated with TransCanada, leaked at/near the 100 block of North Blue Creek Rd, in Benton Twp. Cause of the leak is currently unknown. Emergency responders, consisting of local police (Benton Twp), County Deputies and Benton Twp Fire Personnel assisted with evacuating residents within one (1) mile radius of the gas line leak. Vehicular traffic was also re-routed away from this area. No known injuries have been reported at the time of this release and authorities are conducting air monitoring. TransCanada pipeline representatives were working on shutting off and/or re-routing the natural gas flow from this leaking gas line."

TransCanada’s other two catastrophic failures were in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta in February and in Otterburne, Manitoba in January. TransCanada is seeking permission to convert parts of the same pipeline that failed in Otterburne to carry diluted bitumen as part of their Energy East pipeline project from Alberta to New Brunswick where up to 90% of its 1.1 million barrel per day capacity will be exported unrefined. Watch our 4 minute video handimation about the project here: www.canadians.org/energyeast101